


A Willing Subject (Of Your Affections)

by ByTheAngell (SomeLittleInfamy)



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: F/F, Feelings Realization
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-10
Updated: 2019-09-10
Packaged: 2020-10-13 17:35:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 715
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20586380
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SomeLittleInfamy/pseuds/ByTheAngell
Summary: When Izzy finds one of Clary's sketchbooks, the last thing she expects to see gracing the pages is herself.





	A Willing Subject (Of Your Affections)

**Author's Note:**

> A little something for [Daily Clizzy Source's](http://dailyclizzysource.tumblr.com) Clizzy Week Day One prompt: Painting

It’s a rare occasion for Isabelle to need to borrow clothing from someone else, but the mission she’s going on requires her to blend in with a crowd - jeans, simple t-shirt, maybe even a _ hat _ as much as she despises the idea. Which is why she’s currently digging through Clary’s closet - with Clary’s permission, of course - for something suitable. She doesn’t mean to find the sketchbook that’s buried in the back of the closet, tucked behind a small pile of shoes, and on instinct she reaches for it. 

This isn’t the same sketchbook Clary normally carries around the Institute, the one that’s full of drawings of Shadowhunters around the Institute, or demons, or of the statues or fixtures around the building and the city at large. That books Izzy’s seen a million times, flipping through from front to back to admire her talent. 

No, this is a sketchbook she’s never seen Clary with before. Curiosity overtakes the part of her mind telling her to put it back - after all, Clary never said she _ couldn’t _ touch the other things in the closet when she gave her permission to raid it for clothing. Izzy forgets all about the outfits the moment she flips the cover open to the first page. 

It’s her. A sketch of Izzy’s hair flowing down her back over the familiar criss-cross straps of her favorite dress, a painting of a knife sticking out of a pair of heeled boots, and another of her smiling at one of the tables in the cafeteria. She flips the page and finds more drawings of her, a dress that ends just before a thigh holster, the trail of runes along her exposed skin… 

She stops, stunned, at two pages done in watercolors: for a girl with black hair and an almost entirely black wardrobe, Izzy has no idea how Clary managed to make her seem to glow on the pages she holds. 

“Did you find something to--” Clary’s voice stops abruptly as she steps into the room and sees what Izzy’s holding. 

“Oh my god,” Clary mutters, a flush spreading fast and fiercely across her cheeks and down her neck. “I forgot that was back there. I’m so sorry, you were never supposed to see those.” 

Izzy wants to see more but doesn’t dare turn another page after seeing Clary’s reaction and realizing her mistake. “I shouldn’t have looked in it,” she says, holding it out to Clary, but Clary doesn’t move toward her to take it back so Isabelle places it down on the bed instead.

“No, I never should’ve drawn them,” Clary insists. “I overstepped. It wasn’t my place to, but you’re just so beautiful and- and now I’m making everything awkward… I should go.” 

It takes a few seconds for Isabelle to realize why Clary’s reaction the way she is, all flustered and flushed, rambling like Simon does whenever he’s around a girl he-- oh. _ Oh. _ That’s when it all clicks into place, the paintings, the fact that Clary hid them, that she’s been watching Izzy from afar, practically studying her… 

“Clary, wait!” Izzy stops her just as she reaches the doorway. She thought it was just art, that she was just another subject for Clary, until now. Now that she realizes she can’t believe she didn’t see it sooner. Now she can only hope she didn’t realize it too late. “I don’t want you to go.” 

“...you don’t?” Clary asks cautiously, hesitating. 

“And nothing is awkward. At least, it doesn’t have to be,” Izzy says before adding much quieter. “I like you, too.” 

Clary sucks in a breath at that statement, closing her eyes slowly before opening them again, half-expecting Izzy to not be there again when she did. “Don’t say it just to be nice,” Clary says, lifting her chin up. 

“I’m not,” Izzy promises. “You’re amazing, Clary. Anyone would have to be blind not to notice. And these paintings and sketches are gorgeous,” she adds for good measure. 

“Of course they’re gorgeous,” Clary points out, smiling as she dares to take a step forward, reaching out for Isabelle’s hands. Isabelle mirrors the gesture, meeting her halfway. It’s a small, simple gesture but it’s more than either of them imagined having before now. “They’re of you, how could they be anything else?”

**Author's Note:**

> (Find me on [Tumblr](http://bytheangell.tumblr.com) and also on [Twitter](http://www.twitter.com/By_The_Angell)! <3 )


End file.
